12/20/2013

The Old Drogheda Society has, through it's numerous published journals, enlarged the local history knowledge of Drogheda and the surrounding areas, and we've had a few requests for a list of all the published articles to be made available online for everyone to access. So seeing as 'tis the season, here's the list:

Note: The key to the publication column on the left is: the first two digits are the year of publication, the second digit is the volume number, and the last digit is the article number. So "76.1.01" is the Journal published in 1976, Journal Volume 1 and article no.1.

12/16/2013

1798 was a time of uncertainty and rebellion in Ireland. The United Irishmen were engaged in their guerrilla warfare against the Crown forces from May to September '98 in their attempt to achieve a democratic and equal Ireland. Their fight was based around the principles of the French and American Revolutions and was gaining support all over the country. The Census that took place in Drogheda in '98 shows that the authorities believed there was considerable support for the rebellion amongst the population of Drogheda. This goes contrary to popularly held opinion on the matter; indeed D'Alton, in his 'History of Drogheda' says that it "appears, however, creditable to the loyalty of the town that at the two Assizes of 1799, the number of felons arraigned was but seventeen, of whom only one was tried for sedition and discharged." Indeed, there are a number of reports from the time of members of the 'Defenders' gathering on the banks of the Boyne to parade and swear each other in as members. In Feb 1793 a proclamation offering a reward of £100 to any person who would persecute them (the Defenders) in, amongst others, the county of the town of Drogheda "where they assembled in large bodies with arms and other offensive weapons, administered illegal oaths, sent threatening letters, plundered houses of arms and other things and burned both houses and offices."
On the 22nd June 1798 a Michael Boylan was hanged at the Tholsel for being part of the United Irishmen, along with two other men from Dundalk a short time later.

The '98 Census also provides additional information to historians by providing not only
population lists but also an indication of how the poorer classes lived, those who seem to be invisible in compiled history. A remarkable fact shown was that there were more people living outside the town walls than inside - 8,556 persons in 1,881 houses outside the walls and 6,669 persons in 926 houses inside. Most of the construction outside consisted of "ribbon building" of small thatched mud-walled cabins on all of the approach roads to the various gates - Chord Rd. to Laurence Gate, Hardman's Gardens and Scarlet St. to St. Sunday's Gate, North Rd and Mell to West Gate, Platten Rd, Coolagh St. and Priest Lane to Duleek Gate etc. These cabins were mostly inhabited by the native Irish who, displaced from small farms by agrarian troubles, moved gradually towards the town in search of employment.

If contemporary accounts are to be believed there should have been no lack of work for them. Arthur Young, writing of the town a decade earlier than this census says: "Situated on the Boyne...it exported considerable quantities of corn and provisions as well as a coarse kind of cloth which was made in the district. There was a bustling vigorous air along the quays, where ships were continually loading and unloading, and in the streets surrounding the markets." It was market day in the town on the occasion of Arthur Young's visit and he found "the quantity of corn etc. and the number of people assembled very great - few country markets in England were ever more thronged." The Linen Hall had already been built (1774) where a great linen market was held weekly to dispose of the very large amount of cloth woven in the district, and there were many other small industries such as tanning, brewing, distilling etc. in the town.

Laurence Gate area 1820

The inhabitants of the thatched dwellings outside the walls in 1798 were most likely Gaelic speakers, and the immediate forbears of those described by the German J. G. Kohl a few decades later. Kohl writes of Drogheda, which he visited in 1844: "Drogheda is a very Irish town - the last genuine Irish one the traveller meets on this coast as he travels northward. Nay, Drogheda is perhaps more Irish than many a town in the south or west of the island. The population is almost entirely Roman Catholic, but few Protestants are to be found there. The suburbs of Drogheda are genuinely Irish, miserable, filthy falling cabins, and many persons are likewise to be found in the neighbourhood who understand and speak the old Irish language and say they cannot speak English with comfort or fluency. Nay, according to what I was told by the inhabitants I must believe that the Irish language is far more general in and around Drogheda than at any other point on the eastern coast of Ireland." Thus the large population outside the town wall, as indicated by the 1798 Census, marked a significant stage in the re-conquest of the town by the native Irish. The cabins in which they lived survived in most areas until they were demolished and replaced by modern housing schemes from the 1930's.

Extracts from " A Drogheda Census List of 1798" by Moira Corcoran from the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal 1970 Vol. 17.

12/13/2013

Well the hard work has all been done, the mound complex has been scanned inside and out (literally), and now comes the hard work of a different nature; correlating all the data to see what exactly is there. The site could possibly stretch as far back as the neolithic era, which would place it within the same category as Newgrange, Knowth & Dowth, and hopefully solve the mystery of whether legendary Celtic bard Amergin (or someone else) was buried here!

The preliminary results should be made available in the new year so we won't have too long to wait to uncover Millmounts' secrets!

12/12/2013

Last night saw the 20th issue of the Old Drogheda Society Journal launched at the Governor's House in the Millmount quarter.

The event drew a large audience. The chair of the Old Drogheda Society, Sean Corcoran, opened the session and introduced the Journal's editor, local historian Brendan Matthews who launched the journal. Brendan had two pieces included in this year's publication and has been in a driving force behind the recovery of local historical knowledge. In the weeks prior to last night's launch he was kept busy ensuring that everything would be fine on the night and that no last minute hitches would disrupt proceedings.

Brendan thanked all involved before going on to speak a bit about each article and its author. His coverage was so comprehensive that there was a bit of banter at the end to the effect that there was now no read to read the journal!

Brendan certainly wheted the appetite and it is hoped that the reading public and those with an interest in the local history of our town will purchase the journal.

There was a nice wine and food buffet laid on by the ODS and in those memorable words a good time was had by all.

12/10/2013

During the early 1800's attempts were being made to regulate Drogheda port and harbour as at this time it was one of the busiest ports in the British Isles. There were regular passenger steamer services to Liverpool 2/3 times a week, and the import and export of all types of goods could be found passing through the quaysides.

An important element to obtaining work on the vessels was your paperwork, and to that end we have shown here two ships pilots certificates. They are first class certificates which enabled the bearer to pilot all vessels within the port & harbour, due to "his good behavior and due observance of all such Rules, Orders and Directives" given by the Harbour Board.

The first was awarded in 1852 to a Nicholas Boylan who was 44 years of age, six feet tall, with sandy hair & a fair complexion.

The second was awarded in 1895 to a Laurence Byrne aged 48 years, five feet nine inches in height with dark hair.

Interesting to note that the rates of pilotage didn't change in over 43 years, not like today!

Immediately after tonight’s Christmas Lecture we will have
our Christmas Party in the Lombard Inn, near Trinity College Dublin. Finger food
will be served up and you can meet and chat with other astronomy
enthusiasts!

Comet ISON may be gone but the ESA’s Rosetta
mission is on its way to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When it arrives at the
comet in 2014, it will enter orbit around the icy body and then release a lander
which will study and sample the comet’s surface as it makes its way around the
Sun.

The man in charge of this mission – and many others – is
Professor Alvaro Giménez Cañete, Director of Science and Robotics at the
European Space Agency. He will deliver Astronomy Ireland's special Christmas
Lecture tonight, December 9th in Trinity College Dublin, and we want everyone to
come along!

Professor Giménez’s directorate has a multi-billion euro
budget to operate the ESA's science programme and robotic exploration, and its
most recent milestone was the launch of the Swarm trio of spacecraft that will
measure our planet’s magnetic field.

Professor Giménez is one of the most important people in
Europe's presence in space, of which Ireland is a part. In his talk tonight, he
will discuss the current and upcoming space missions undertaken by the European
Space Agency, including:

·Mars Express

·International Space Station

·Rosetta

·Cassini-Huygens

…and more!

We are extremely lucky to have him come to Ireland to give
this special lecture, so make sure you book your tickets soon as this will be a
very popular lecture!

12/07/2013

Comet ISON may be gone but the ESA’s Rosetta
mission is on its way to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When it arrives at the
comet in 2014, it will enter orbit around the icy body and then release a lander
which will study and sample the comet’s surface as it makes its way around the
Sun.

The man in charge of this mission – and many others – is
Professor Alvaro Giménez Cañete, Director of Science and Robotics at the
European Space Agency.

Professor Giménez’s directorate has a multi-billion euro
budget to operate the ESA's science programme and robotic exploration, and its
most recent milestone was the launch of the Swarm trio of spacecraft that will
measure our planet’s magnetic field.

Professor Giménez is one of the most important people in
Europe's presence in space, of which Ireland is a part. He will deliver
Astronomy Ireland's special Christmas Lecture on Monday, December 9th in Trinity
College Dublin, and we want everyone to come along!

We are extremely lucky to have him come to Ireland to give
this special lecture, so make sure you book your tickets soon as this will be a
very popular lecture!

After the lecture there will be a social reception nearby
in the Lombard Inn with finger food.

12/06/2013

A posed photograph of the Viaduct circa 1900 taken from the high ground (now part of Maple Drive) above the Cord Road.

That bicycle!That straw boater! The gentleman is turned out in his finery to get his photograph taken, and it also affords a great view of the south side of the town at the river. The houses in Ship St., smoke rising from their chimneys, are visible through the main span of the Viaduct, with the buildings along the Dublin Road sitting above them. A whitewashed thatch cottage further down the Marsh Road peeks through the left arch.
On the far right Millmount is framed through the Viaducts arch, whilst one of the stone buildings of Cairnes Brewery sits by the river front.

Through the arch in the middle, directly above Donor's Green, can be seen the buildings and chimneys belonging to the various industries on the Marsh Road: The Drogheda Chemical and Manure Works has its lettering painted on its buildings, and behind it is the Gas Works and St. Mary's Mills. To the right of the tallest chimney is the yellow-brick St. Mary's Convent on the Dublin Road, with the school and Georgian houses running off to the left. Above them all rises the spire of St. Mary's C.O.I. at the top of Marys St.

A sailing ship sits at the riverside, soon to be overtaken in the shipping race by its steam powered counterpart sitting opposite it.

12/04/2013

Reminder that the Old Drogheda Society will hold a lecture Drogheda and
its World in the Middle Ages in association with Meath Archaeological and
Historical Society tonight Wednesday 4th December in the Millmount Museum,
Drogheda, at 7.30pm.

The speaker is Dr Brendan Smith (Head of the Graduate School of Arts and
Humanities at the University of Bristol).

Dr Smith specialises in the
history of the British Isles from the twelfth to the fifteenth century,
with a particular interest in Ireland. He has a strong commitment to making
the sources for late medieval history more easily available to scholars,
students, and local historians.

12/03/2013

At the beginning of the 19th century, the most noted character in these parts was the notorious highwayman Michael Collier or 'Collier the Robber' as he was known. Micheal Collier may have been known as 'the notorious highway robber' to the rich but he was 'celebrated Collier the highwayman' to the poor.

"Collier was then a dauntless and powerful man, exhibiting all the marks of great muscular powers; and though it was evident his best days had passed away, he yet seemed like an oak that braved the storm and stood the shock of time, defiant as ever. He was upwards of six feet high and nearly fourteen stone weight, extremely broad in shoulders and made proportionately". With these words a Drogheda solicitor described the famous highwayman, then in the last year of his life and almost seventy years of age.

He even had his own book of collected tales about him

There are conflicting reports as to where Michael Collier was born, some say he was a Bellewstown man, others say it was at the foot of a hill on the banks of the river Nanny, but there is strong evidence to support the fact he was from Lisdornan, Julianstown, Co. Meath. Born in the 1780's, the area where he grew up formed part of the old coach route from Drogheda to Dublin via Beamore, Cooperhill, Dardistown, Lisdornan, Mullaghteeling, Naul, Ballyboughal, St. Margarets and finally Church St. in Dublin. Collier would have seen much activity along this route and heard many stories and tales as the horsemen would regularly pull up at the numerous forges that lay on the route; and perhaps he may have travelled to the city and back with many of the riders and coaches.

Whilst still a young teenager he went to work in the vicinity of Pilltown, just outside Drogheda for a man named Murtagh, and whilst he was in this employment he was involved in antics such as robbing fruit from the nearby orchards; a pretty serious offence in the 1790's. In his youth he also fell in love with a girl whose father and three brothers were horse-thieves. They had been captured and were on their way to Trim for what was considered then a hanging offence. He engineered their escape, which made him a wanted man. He took to the hills and to the highways, and very soon established himself as a very skillful highway robber, and from the handsome booty he obtained from his activities, enabled him to live like a prince. What is to his credit is that he acted like a prince, priding himself in his unique code of conduct and helping in a practical way many less fortunate in his native countryside.

Some of his most famous exploits included: during one of his first robberies near the Naul, Collier and his accomplices held up the Dublin mail coach. The coach was stopped and a voice cried out "Deliver to Collier!" The ladies on the coach began to panic but Collier reassured them that they would come to no harm as long as they handed over all their money. He generously allowed them to keep their jewellery.

Another famous scene was his hold-up and robbery of the Dublin-Belfast mail coach at Bloody-Hollow on the Great North road between Drumcondra and Swords. He collected a lot of coats and hats and arranged them on a hedge at the side of the steep-rising out of Bloody-Hollow. As the stagecoach was nearing, Collier leaped out in front of it and shouted "now gentlemen, resistance is useless, my men line the ditches, they only want one word from me and they will riddle you with bullets". The frightened passengers could do nothing except deliver up all their money and valuable items to the highwayman. When they did Collier stepped aside and bid them a safe journey. The next morning a flying squad of Dragoons sent out from Dublin found six dummy figures propped up against a hedge at Bloody-Hollow. By that time, Collier was safe and sound many miles away from that spot.

Collier became hated by the well-off members of society, whilst the poorer classes to whom he was alleged to be generous had great respect for him. Many a poor peasant or small farmer had reason to be thankful to him, as he shared some of the money he had taken from the rich landlords with them.

Of those who rode with him, many were from the village of Lisdornan and his gang numbered twenty-four at one point. Fourteen of his fellow highwaymen were hanged, six were shot and two were transported, yet he himself seemed to live a charmed life and escaped the hangman twice. The first time he was captured by Lord Gormanston and his Troopers at the old Greenhills Tavern, a few hundred yards south of the entrance to the Mosney Road. He was sentenced to be hanged, but broke out of Trim Jail on the eve of his execution and managed to escape by swimming the River Boyne to freedom.

Cord Cemetery - Where is Collier?

The second time he was taken by John Armstrong (Chief of the Watch in Drogheda) and a large force of mounted constabulary at the Cock Pub in Gormanston. He was condemned to life imprisonment in the penal colonies of Australia. Soon after his arrival there, he was mysteriously released on condition that he joined the colonial regiment there. Sometime after that, he was promoted then discharged and given a free passage back to Ireland. He returned around 1820 and spent some time as a publican before his death. The great Leinster highwayman breathed his last in the house of Mr. Edward O'Reilly of West St. in 1849 of the dreaded cholera that was sweeping the country at this period. His remains were then brought, by means of a pony and cart, by six men to be buried in the Cord Cemetery by candlelight in the dead of night. His grave has never been fully identified in the Cord although the spot is said to be marked by a simple stone; a quiet end for the notorious highwayman.

Article extracts from "From the Nanny to the Boyne - A Local History" compiled by Margaret Downey & the Meath East Co-Operative Society.

12/01/2013

Meath Archaeological and Historical Societywould like to announce a lecture Drogheda and its World in the Middle Ages. This is the next Meath Archaeological and Historical Society lecture to be held on Wednesday 4th December in the Millmount Museum, Drogheda.

The lecture will commence at 7.30pm. Take note that this isearlier than our normal time for lectures.

The establishment of new towns was one of the most important developments in European history in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As the population grew, and with it trade and commerce, kings and lords saw the potential of urban centres to add to their wealth and power.

The English conquest of Ireland after 1170 was accompanied by the foundation of hundreds of new towns, but none of these proved as prosperous or successful as Drogheda. From the start it was linked in to an economic system that embraced not only both sides of the Irish Sea, but also the lands of the kings of England in south west France. Initially the town was populated by migrants from the west of England, and by the middle of the thirteenth century was sufficiently busy to sustain both a Dominican and a Franciscan friary. From the 1290s onwards its importance to the kings of England grew as it served as a point of supply for their campaigns to conquer Scotland. Drogheda shipping carried not only soldiers from Ireland, but also the grain grown in the town's rich hinterland. Drogheda grew rich on such trade, and its merchants ventured further afield in search of new opportunities for trade. Its ruling families sought to emulate the lavish lifestyles of urban oligarchs elsewhere in western Europe, not least by patronising the many churches and religious houses with which the town was filled.

As English power in Ireland shrank, Drogheda's importance became more obvious to those who sought to rule the country, and the voice of the townsmen in national affairs became louder.

The speaker is Dr Brendan Smith (Head of the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Bristol). The talk is held in association with the Old Drogheda Society and all are welcome.